Laserdisc was first by a long shot and would have been adopted but the cost was through the roof, I remember it clearly. And that was a quick google for more on spot examples feel free I'm know your able to google. I'm not interested in getting into a protracted discussion on semantics.
I'm not disagreeing with your semantics. You said "better tech loses all the time" and cited some poorly marketed products as examples. Sure I can google, but I still can't find any good fodder to back up your statement.
I brought up Laserdisc because I don't think it's an example of better tech 'losing' to inferior tech. Optical disk technology has been winning for decades.
Ohh, I didn't mean All of the time I meant alot of the time. My bad, I was playing loose with the verbage.
AFA the Laser Tech it was only competing with tape when released and cdroms didn't come out till much later. they had ample opportunity to own the market but in their case they priced the majority out of the market. IIRC I was making $2.80 an hour and the machine was $800 and one movie was $50 which is just an insane amount for the time. I think they only had 4 movies on launch and Logans Run was the one I wanted.